# ggreer/the_silver_searcher

A code-searching tool similar to ack, but faster.

Repository: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/the_silver_searcher
Homepage: http://geoff.greer.fm/ag/
Language: C
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: command-line-tool, c, silver-searcher, pcre, ag, search-in-text
Last push: 2024-06-16T19:37:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5401, "days_push": 808, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 27108, forks 1438 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:47.396942+00:00)

## What it is
The Silver Searcher (ag) is a fast command-line code search tool similar to ack, written in C. It respects .gitignore/.hgignore files and uses multithreading, mmap, and PCRE JIT to search codebases an order of magnitude faster than ack.

## Use cases
- search text across a codebase from the terminal
- grep alternative that respects gitignore
- fast regex search over large source trees
- find where a function is used in a repo
- replace ack with a faster code searcher

## When to choose
- you want very fast text/code search from the command line
- you want automatic respect of VCS ignore files
- you prefer a small, stable C tool over heavier alternatives

## When to avoid
- you need Unicode-aware search or active development - ripgrep is more actively maintained
- you need IDE-integrated search rather than a CLI tool
- you need content indexing or a search engine service

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: search-engine, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: cli, windows, bsd, cross-platform
- tags: code-search, grep-alternative, ack, pcre, text-search, ripgrep-alternative, command-line, search, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- ggreer/the_silver_searcher (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:47.396942+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:54:35.439877+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:47.396942+00:00, sha 4d7a814c22b3)
  - homepage: http://geoff.greer.fm/ag/ (fetched 2026-08-29T07:52:00.395854+00:00, sha bdacedb1fb93)
  - site_page: https://geoff.greer.fm/about (fetched 2026-08-29T07:52:00.407834+00:00, sha d8c351a7d599)
  - site_page: https://geoff.greer.fm/ag/speed (fetched 2026-08-29T07:52:00.409875+00:00, sha 1ce26b5da1e6)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.